Many people with physical or cognitive challenges (e.g., severe speech impairments) may use Augmentative and Alternative Communication (AAC) systems in order to express themselves. This may include individuals who suffer from autism, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), brain injuries, or strokes.
Certain AAC systems include speech generating devices. A speech generating device (SGD) acts as a proxy for conveying speech to those nearby as a prosthetic for a loss of speech.
Certain SGDs may include an electronic interface with specialized software configured to assist the user in creating a message that may be translated into an electronic voice output. SGDs may produce the electronic voice output by using digitized recordings of natural speech or through speech synthesis.
There are several challenges in communicating with a speech generating device. One challenge is that the SGD may have a very slow conversational throughput rate, with users generally producing only 8-10 words per minute. As such, there may be “dead time” during a conversation when the SGD user is inputting text into their device. In some instances, this slow communication pace may prompt a conversation partner to attempt to finish the SGD user's sentences for them, look over their shoulder as they input characters or words into their device, or ask a second question before the user has finished preparing a response to the first question. Such interaction may be undesired by the SGD user.
Another challenge with a speech generating device is that the electronic voice output of the SGD may not convey adequate emotion for the user. In other words, while the electronic voice output may be more “natural” in terms of sounding more like a human rather than prototypical “machine” speech, the output generally lacks emotive aspects of speech critical to communication.
Furthermore, an additional challenge with certain speech generating devices is being able to direct the inputted text to a distinct conversation partner. Certain SGDs only provide for broadcasting the inputted text at a predefined volume to nearby individuals around the user of the SGD.
Various workarounds to these challenges include using text messaging or email, or using something other than the SGD (e.g., eyebrow movements) to communicate the information or indicate the need for a more private conversation. This can be problematic because a caregiver may not be nearby, thus there is no ability to signal the caregiver. Texting or email are non-ideal because they require too many additional actions by the user, such as switching to a very different portion of the SGD software interface, selecting the recipient, and so on. Further, not all SGDs support email or text.